California Adventure Day 1

We landed in LA early afternoon and headed straight for the Hertz dealership. The pictures this day were taken with the broken camera.

Imagine shoving that huge bag into that small trunk. Then imagine doing it twice a day for 7 days! Bean got really good at it by the end of the trip. We figured out a certain way to get all of the bags in the trunk and they fit just right.

I named her Silver Bullet, but I only called her that a couple of times. I got to drive her off the lot because my name was on the reservation.

After checking in at the hotel (we got an unfriendly welcome and a room next to the elevators), we unpacked our stuff and planned to go see the sights. Bean took the wheel and we drove down Rodeo Drive, after a detour from Rodeo Road- thanks TomTom!


We saw the Beverly Wilshire. Bean said it was the hotel she stayed at in Pretty Woman. I just recognized the name.

Then we turned the corner onto Sunset, and I spotted the Beverly Hills Hotel! I know it's famous, and I know that Tori Spelling stayed there. Surely there's something else cool about it, but that's all I know. Can you see it through all of the trees?


After cruising a little more...well actually, after sitting in more traffic, we saw some nightclubs on the Sunset Strip and decided to plug in the address I have memorized from watching LA Ink. So we found it!! I was turned around but Bean spotted it and we circled the block. When I saw the back wall that's painted with their faces I got excited.

We parked across the street at a grocery store and walked past the entrance where two cool looking guys were smoking. We casually looked inside. It looked small. We walked to the end of that block and there was nothing else to see, so we turned around and walked back by. Then I took the tourist picture of the front of the shop.


Then we saw some excellent prom dresses in a window. I thought they were very LA.


Here's a bad picture of the traffic on an LA Freeway, on our way to the Dodgers game. When we saw it, I thought "If I could just get off of that LA freeway without getting killed or caught..."

We searched all around for a place to eat other than the stadium, but were so tired of sitting in the car for 2+ hours and not seeing anything interesting aside from a tattoo shop, we just went to the game. The stadium was very old and reminded me of going to a middle school hometown game. We sat in the bleachers (the 'ghetto' seats) which were made of wood. What did we have for dinner?
Dodger Dogs! And popcorn. And beer. Those were the only options available to the bleacher seat ticket holders. The game was boring. I enjoyed saying, "Pop Fly!" and "Fly Ball!" and "Good Eye!" and "Strike Three, you're Out!" like they do in little league.

We sat behind a group of Young Life teens and their guests, several of which had Down's Syndrome. I enjoyed watching them because they were so excited about the game. The boys were really into it. One girl and one guy got up everytime a song came on and went crazy dancing to the music. The guy would pull his hat to the side and get low. The girl had grinding moves I've never seen before! Two of the guys and their chaperone would laugh and wrestle. You could tell that guy really enjoyed spending time with those kids.

When the game was over, we headed back to the hotel and crashed. We were ready to get out of LA and start our driving adventure!